Making the most of my time

-If I could see His glory I would give Him all of my time and energy and be completely surrendered to Him.  I would not seek to live for my own glory, but His alone.  I would be so completely surrendered to Him.
- I must recognize that I am so tiny and insignificant, that to live for my own glory would be incredibly ridiculous.  I must seek to live for God's glory because His purposes are meaningful and worth being a part of.  To live for myself would be meaningless.  It would be a waste of a life.  Only God's purposes are truly worth living for.

- it is shameful to think that I would be excited to serve a celebrity and do stuff for them.   How much more I should do this for God.  I know the God of the universe.  This just goes to show how foolish I am.  I must take God so much more seriously.  I must see Him for what He truly is.

I am to live as if my life has a point, and I am not it.  My glory has no meaning, God's glory is the definition of meaningful, and He wants me to be a part of it.  My glory is too little a thing to live for.  I am too small a thing to live for.

Priority determines capacity.  When I get my priorities straight it allows life to be more enjoyable.  It is not necessarily a case of not getting to do the things I enjoy, it is just making sure that the most important aspects of my life come first.  A good visual of this is trying to fit big rocks into a jar if pebbles.  The rocks represent the important priorities in life, while the pebbles represent the things that we simply enjoy doing.  When the pebbles take priority and go into the jar first, then they take up too much space and you can't fit in all the rocks.  If you put the rocks in first however, then when you put the pebbles in they will find space around the rocks and you can then fit both the rocks and the pebbles into the jar.  Priority definitely determines capacity.  If you prioritize correctly, then you should be able to fit everything into your day/life that you need to.

When you try and rush things in life, in order to fit everything in, then it greatly hurts intimacy.  Therefore when it comes to my relationship with God, as well as Brie and my kids, I must never rush.  I never want to hurt intimacy in these relationships.

By putting the "God rock" into the jar of my life first, it helps me maintain proper priority in all areas of my life.  After all, why wouldn't I do this.  God says in Matthew 6:33 that He knows everything that I need and therefore I am to "seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness", and that when I do that He will provide for me everything else that I need.  It is amazing that God knows what I need and promises to give it to me when I seek Him first, so of course He must come first in my life.

I believe that this means that I should spend the first minutes of my day with the Lord.  It is a way to put Him first and set my day off right.  It makes sure that God remains the center if my life in general, and therefore all that will arise in that day.

A good saying from Martin Luther is "Pray and let God worry".  God wants to never be anxious about anything.

You will make better decisions if you live realizing that your days are numbered.

Investing small amounts of time on things that matter will have a positive cumulative value.  At the same time, neglecting spending time on things that matter also have a negative cumulative value.  And no one installment of time really matters.  It is cumulative value over time that matters.  For instance, spending time with my family once will not have a positive impact on my life.  It is spending time with them on a consistent basis that will matter.  At the same time, if I consistently neglect spending time with my family that will have a negative effect over time on my relationship with them.

Often times it can be very easy to fill our time with random things.  For instance, surfing the internet in a leisurely manner, watching t.v., watching movies, etc..  It is important to realize that when you take these things and add up the time youbsoend on them theubhabe no value.  There is no benefit to them.  Therefore, it is important that we spend those random amounts of time on things which will have a positive cumulative value when we add them all up.

Ephesians 5:15, 16, 17 teaches these principles.  It instructs us on the importance of making the most of every opportunity and using our time strategically.

The book of Ecclesiastes speaks in depth about how meaningless life is apart from God.  It talks about how life does not always make sense.  An example if this is when someone is faithful to God and bad things still happen.  The good news though is that no matter what happens in life, God still wants us to trust Him and be faithful to Him.  And He will use all things for His glory.  Therefore, with these truths in mind, it makes it increasingly clear how important it is to live surrendered to God following His will for your life.  It is important tonseek His will, discovering that which he chooses to reveal to you, and then live to tally surrendered to Him.  Everything else in this life is meaningless apart from Him.  Everyone lives, works hard, gains stuff and then dies leaving all that stuff to someone else who didn't earn it.  Living life surrendered to God is the only way to find true fulfillment.

Do not waste your life "chasing the wind".  Do not waste your life chasing after things that really don't have any eternal value.  It is so important to keep your priorities straight.  God has given me a wife and children to love and impact for God's glory.  I must not miss the mark.  I must not miss out on investing in their lives for God's glory, for this is a way that I can have an impact for God's Kingdom for generations to come.  I must be in prayer for my kids and their kids and all future generations.  I know things like my job can have eternal value, and it is important for me to pursue hard in these things, but I must never do so at the expense of my family.  This is the most important investment God has given me for His Kingdom.  The moral if much if this is to make sure that I am setting my priorities straight so that my time is spent serving God and seeking how I can be better surrendered to Him so that my life is spent furthering His Kingdom.